🎮 Dev Log: The Case of the Slow Diagonal + Balance Updates

Hey everyone! I wanted to share an interesting development challenge and some important balance changes I've made to the game!

Movement Fix:

Early in development, I noticed something odd with our character's movement. When players tried to move diagonally (pressing up + right, for example), they would actually move slower than when moving straight up, down, left, or right. This felt pretty sluggish and unnatural - it's like if you were trying to walk diagonally across a room but had to wade through invisible mud while doing it!

Why It Happened & The Failed Fixes:

Initially, I was using a shared velocity component for both the player and enemies - which seemed like a smart way to handle movement code. I tried several approaches to fix the diagonal movement while keeping this system:

- First, I tried using lerp (linear interpolation) to smooth out the movement

- Then I attempted to use move_toward for more precise control

- I even tried implementing acceleration curves and tweaking the velocity calculations

- Normalizing the movement vector at different stages of the process

But no matter what mathematical approach I took, the player movement either felt too sluggish diagonally, or had other weird side effects that made it feel unnatural. The shared component worked perfectly for enemies, but the player just needed something different.

The Solution:

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best! After all those complex attempts, I ended up abandoning the shared velocity component (while keeping it for enemies where it works great) and implemented a much simpler, direct movement calculation specifically for the player. Now the character moves smoothly and consistently in all directions, just as it should!

Balance Changes:

I've also made some important balance adjustments to improve the overall game experience:

- **Scythe Changes:** I've reduced the weight of the Scythe in the upgrade pool. This means you'll see it less frequently in early game, making it more of a late-game powerhouse rather than an early-game dominant strategy. This should make your runs more varied and interesting!

- **Wizard Enemy Adjustments:**
  - Fireball cooldown increased to 10 seconds between shots

  - Fireball speed reduced from 200 to 90

  - These changes should make the Wizard feel more fair to fight against while still maintaining their threat level

Let me know how these changes feel in your next runs! 🏃‍♂️✨